TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Jul 03, 2005 10:44 am

Now that I'm finally working on it, I'll post about my bus. I've been hanging around TS for several years, but didn't want to post about 'the bus sitting in my garage that I never work on'.

67 standard, was apparently in line for the crusher around 1995 when a VW guy spotted it and bought it. 1600dp that runs pretty strong, transaxle that seems solid but jumps out of reverse if you don't hold the shifter. I took this bus into an autobody class in 2000, where I did the cargo floors, rockers, passenger side cab floor and lots of miscellaneous small body work fixes. I wanted to learn to weld, and I got a LOT of practice.

It went into what was to be short-term storage after the body class, which turned to long-term storage (which toasted the all-new brakes - about 30 miles on them at the time), and a new kiddo and old house have come first for a long time. I've skillfully convinced everyone involved (read: wife) that the bus is like a Swiss-Army knife for home repair and child rearing, and working on it should be moved to the top of all TO-DO lists.

I'm almost finished replacing the brakes and have redone all of the foot levers, each of which was frozen, rusty, and barely operable. Once the brakes are done, it's a new clutch & T/O bearing, engine in, and drive it for the first time in 5 years.

Then I will go immediately to the home center and load the roof rack full of lumber, etc., and do one home project, which my wife will choose. After that, it's back to the bus for everything else.

It will probably never leave the island unless/until we move, but then who wants to, anyway.

Various pics of it and work already done:

Sun Jul 03, 2005 10:12 pm

Nice work. I've been putting off my nose and rockers for some time now(too scared to see whats under all that bondo) :(

Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:16 pm

The size of the job was a little intimidating, having not done it before, but I was anxious to get started and fairly sure that I knew exactly how bad it was. I had all the metal already, other than the B pillar bottoms that I had to fabricate. (The B pillar panel that I bought from WW was too narrow by about 1/4in, and had to be widened.) Having a nice big shop to work in was a bonus that gave me a little extra comfort factor, as well.

It sounds hokey, but every time I open and shut the cargo doors I get a little charge out of knowing how solid all that now is. Well worth the effort. Exorcise that Bondo!

Fri Feb 03, 2006 7:50 pm

Sad to say, but it's taken this long to go from where it was in my last post to driving around the neighborhood today! I made a short trip last weekend, but came back to find gear oil leaking rapidly out of a rear seal. Did it over, and no more leak!!

It doesn't jump out of reverse anymore, and went fairly well for a first trip since 2000. Even dirty as hell, I still had two people stop to talk about it.

I need to rebuild the carb, though, as the acc. pump gasket is seeping, and it doesn't idle well when hot.

Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:48 pm

wow, thats some impressive work. I love those seat covers..

Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:04 pm

very nice work, keep us updated.

Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:59 am

z said Quote: I've been hanging around TS for several years, but didn't want to post about 'the bus sitting in my garage that I never work on'.

why not i do!

that is some seriously nice work! i wish i go thome early enough at night to take a bodyshop class. continued success to you with it!

Sat Feb 04, 2006 6:39 am

And BAM! I love these bus build threads.

Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:29 am

Thats alot of work! Keep it up.

Sat Feb 04, 2006 10:19 pm

Those seat covers were the scratchiest material I've ever seen. They are now LONG gone. The remnants of original covers were underneath, which feel much better, even torn.

More trips around the block today, but 6 or 8 blocks at a time now, rather than 1 or 2...adjusted brakes some more, greased the front end (this is worth it - if you haven't, do it now!) Got the carb freed up and choke working better - it was pretty sticky from sitting, but still needs a rebuild.

My wife almost fell over when I offered her a ride...I don't think she believed I'd ever get that far...

Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:56 pm

OK, so I'm pretty sure I win the 'Longest Time Period w/o Posting an Update' award....been doing lots of work on the bus, just got out of the habit of posting.

I finally (several months ago) got the carb issue sorted out, by installing a nicely rebuilt 34 Pict Solex (thanks Keifernet). The old carb was just not working well, even after being (badly) rebuilt (by me). It now runs well, although I'm gonna install a new distributor soon, as the old one is a bit sloppy.

Once it was running and stopping well, the sloppy shifter was next. It had the typical play, with the added bonus of popping out of reverse if I didn't hold the lever in place (I had thought this was cured earlier, but it returned when I started driving it a bit more). Installed all new bushings, couplers and boots...not the most fun I've had working on busses...but now shifts great. Still think I need a rebuilt transaxle, though...eventually.

Tue Sep 25, 2007 9:48 pm

With the bus now running pretty well, I started working on getting the pop-out windows sorted out. They were a bit crusty and the old rubber was toast, so I wanted to get them clean and sealing properly, esp. since the bus will get driven pretty frequently, rain or shine.

Fortunately, I had a set of 6 rust-free windows...the rubber was old and dry, and the glass ranges from pretty nice to slightly delaminated, with a couple pieces showing some scuffing from sort of sander/grinder. I decided to clean these up and repaint them beige-grey, and install new seals.

The window openings weren't too bad...only a couple of pitted areas, but no perforations. I decided to use some of the POR 15 'Patch and Fill' goop to level out these pits. It did some funny stuff in the curing process, but worked out pretty well - we'll see what it does over time. (Unfortunately, I lost a bunch of the detail pics of this stage of the work.)

Before:

After:

After color sanding the new paint, I started buffing out the original paint on the roof, as well.

Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:17 am

I'm glad you decided to resurrect this thread. Keep up the good work & post pics.

Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:53 pm

Now with the pop-outs redone and mostly installed (still have to reweld that driver's side latch mount point that's typically torn out - coverage to follow...), I began to correct everything necessary to get an inspection - turn signals, lights, etc. Had to fix a broken wire on the license light, and replaced the boot and lens seal. The turn signals and dimmer weren't working, but new relays for both solved that problem.

The wipers worked, but were very sluggish. One of the wiper shaft retaining clips (the REALLY tiny ones at the tip of the shaft) had gone, so the shaft was falling down through the tube. Naturally, the other one made up for this by being worn down so far that removal was pretty difficult. That shaft was also very rusty and gritty.

Installed a wiper shaft rebuild kit from WW (sorry - didn't photograph any of this process), and what a difference...wipers now work smoothly, quickly and quietly, hopefully making that expensive wiper motor last a LOT longer....

I couldn't stand the thought of reinstalling all of that with the mismatched paint on the windshield area and the heavy epoxy primer on the nose, so i prepped and painted the entire area down to a few inches below the wiper mounts. I'll paint the rest of the nose section soon and blend it in. Polished the dash, etc. while doing the outside - now it all looks pretty nice, and the Tower Paint was a great match for the BG.

Big bonus was finding two nice squirters in a baggie of misc. parts the night before I polished out the new paint...I really didn't want to use new incorrect squirters (not like i'm gonna use them as intended, but...) All that nice paint makes the old safari rubber look like hell, though - gotta replace that now.

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Fri Sep 28, 2007 4:15 am

that looks great!

Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:42 pm

So my driver's side front pop-out latch attachment point was torn (just recently learned that this was common)...it was ugly...had been repaired badly several times before, and all that was left was the threaded spacer, held to a triangle of sheet metal with one tiny machine screw, and the triangle of metal was only attached to the bus by about 1mm. I had to cut it off way before I started taking pictures because it was a hazard.

This is the trimmed and marked repair area...

Since it's obviously a weak spot, I thought I'd beef it up a bit, with an extra piece of metal behind the patch...not much extra work, and I don't think it will tear out again. The indentation for the rubber seal extends about 1 inch from the bottom of the patch piece before it fades out (actually at the top right of the outer patch piece, which is upside down in this pic)...fun to make from scratch.

I thought this piece, thoroughly welded to the existing metal AND the patch piece would help handle the load better... holes in outer metal are near the edges of the reinforcement piece for a good bond, and the screw holes got welds, too, of course.

With inner and outer pieces attached and almost completely ground smooth...

To locate the mounting triangle, I tried making a template from another window first - had I gone with it, I would have welded it in about 1/4 inch too low...luckily, I had a bad feeling about it and mounted the window to make sure...then located the triangle and welded it in. The welds on the left side were re-done-you can see that they didn't penetrate at all... The two un-threaded holes in the triangle were from an attempted repair in the past; fortunately, the original threads were in good shape.

Done! Glad I get to cover the ugliness with headliner, as my welding is a little rusty... :D

Next up...center pin replacement, for greater steering pleasure!

Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:20 am

wow! great work!

Wed Oct 10, 2007 7:29 pm

great thread! Everytime I read one of these build up thread I feel so guilty cause my car just sits in the garage.

Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:01 pm

I know what you mean...these threads have gotten me going again more than once.

It's all about momentum - for me, anyway.

Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:31 am

So lately, I've been busy doing lots of little projects - installing a new rear hatch seal, reinstalling floor plugs, made a new masonite package shelf piece, etc., working towards reducing interior noise. Amazing what a difference all the little stuff makes. As my middle seat is awaiting sandblasting and assembly, my son rides in the back seat, and it was impossible to hear anything he said unless we were stopped. After the above small items, as well as installing about half of the E-Dead in the cargo area, we can now have a fairly normal conversation while driving. I can also now hear mechanical noises much better.

I'm working on pics of the above stuff, but i also made a new walk-thru mat hold-down piece:

the one in front
the one in rear

I found a big roll of ribbed rubber mat for the walkthru kick panel area - very close to original. I'll be fitting that soon, but have to grind down some floor panel welds first. More pics to follow...